TikTok May Lose Some Very Big Songs

Yes, it's over a licensing deal, and it affects Taylor Swift, Drake, Adele, and more
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 31, 2024 11:55 AM CST
Some of Your Favorite Music May Vanish From TikTok
Taylor Swift performs at the Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov. 9, 2023. Universal Music Group, which represents artists including Swift, Drake, Adele, Bad Bunny, and Billie Eilish, says that it will no longer allow its music on TikTok now that a licensing deal has expired.   (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)

Universal Music Group—which represents artists including Taylor Swift, Drake, Adele, Bad Bunny, and Billie Eilish—says that it will no longer allow its music on TikTok after a licensing deal between the two expired on Wednesday. UMG said that it had not agreed to terms of a new deal with TikTok, explaining in a Tuesday letter addressed to artists and songwriters that it had been pressing TikTok on three issues, reports the AP: "appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok's users."

UMG said that TikTok proposed paying its artists and songwriters at a fraction of the rate that other major social platforms pay. "Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music," UMG said. TikTok pushed back against those claims, saying that it has reached "artist-first" agreements with every other label and publisher, and saying that Universal Music is putting "their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters." UMG also called new tech a potential threat to artists and said that TikTok is developing tools to enable, promote, and encourage AI music creation. UMG accused the platform of "demanding a contractual right ... (to) a move that is nothing short of sponsoring artist replacement by AI."

UMG is also unsatisfied with TikTok's efforts to deal with what it says is hate speech, bigotry, bullying, and harassment. It said that having troubling content removed from TikTok is a "monumentally cumbersome and inefficient process which equates to the digital equivalent of 'Whack-a-Mole.'" UMG said it proposed that TikTok take steps similar to what some of its other social media platform partners use, but that it was met with indifference, and then intimidation. "TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal," UMG said. "How did it try to intimidate us? By selectively removing the music of certain of our developing artists, while keeping ... our audience-driving global stars."

(More TikTok stories.)

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